Tornadoes have been around for longer than man, but how frequently did they occur? The above link depicts the first record of what appears to be a tornado since the description of "a whirlwind" in Ezekiel. What Winthrop mentions, in the post cited above, concerns the destructive, driving winds that send people into fear or even to death accompanying the cyclone. American folklore finds mention in the story of Pecos Bill and in The Wizard of Oz, but these do little justice to the power these storms have over life and death and loss of property. I hope this thread can shed some light onto the possible means to fight back at Mother Nature when she wants to beat us so severely as with these deadly storms. Let's look at how the dynamics of these winds may tear apart a typical structure as man has known it for milleniums.The illustration above is similar to how a tornadic wind would appear if we could take a look at what was happening inside. First a stream of cold air descends through a mass of warmer air to form a core. The warmer airs ascend around that core and begin a runaway toroid, or donut shaped, stream where, although there is still a downward stream in the center that wants to compress what is beneath it, the ascending stream far overpowers the core and creates a turbulent, inbound and upbound wind that turns everything in its path into an aerfoil according to its own aerodynamic geometry. Uaually we see flat roof and side panels ripped upward in the accompanying vacuum. This is what I hope to address where architecture is concerned.The above shape looks a bit like a flying saucer. Although it takes a desperate leap away from the conventional white picket fence dream, it takes a forward leap into the arms of safety. This is the only image of these home designs I have currently, still it takes just a little imagination to envision one of these, with the outermost rim at ground level, while the level beneath that rim is moored into the ground, and to imagine how the aerodynamic geometry shown would allow winds, 1/4 of that traversing the wings of a 747, to flow around and over the structure. These structures, as I envision them, would be built in a factory in sections and shipped via lowboy trailer to the mooring site. In that, once the "dry dock" is excavated, the structure is assembled in about a day's time. The word drydock tells us these are not just intended to be safe from tornadoes, but floods and the aluminum shell around them would protect the inhabitants and their electronics from potential damage in a severe solar flare. Moored securely to the dock in a wind storm by cables, the same cables can be extended to accommodate rising flood waters. Even an earth quake can be survived, unless the worst situation should happen where a gaping crack developed directly beneath it. That is very rare.To ask me more about these you can email me at drcharbonneau@live.com and I'll answer most questions, if an answer is available. An idea of cost? Complete with drydock excavtion, concrete, shipping and assembly a 25 meter (80 ft.) domicile would be around $150,000. That's a good sized dwelling with 3 stories and independent energy sources from wind, rain, sun and internal combustion. The entire structure could be submerged or, in the real worst case scenario of Yellowstone Park errupting, covered by volcanic ash. In that, this design covers just about all hazards save for a meteor landing right on top of it. Dr. C.

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__________________The universe is a hairball. It was created by Fritz the Cat. :P Einstein said the universe was like a plate of spaghetti. Still, you don't want to know what transpired between him and Elsa to bring about that idea.

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